


The Enemy You Can't Live Without

by still_lycoris



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Decapitation, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Mental Instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 07:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15814296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Josh recognises Hannah - and she recognises him. What then?





	The Enemy You Can't Live Without

He stopped screaming after she dragged him back through the room with the body hanging in it. What was the point? Nobody heard when you screamed anyway. And when they did, they didn't understand. You screamed because of the things in your head and people just told you that you were imagining them. So you might as well keep quiet and that was easier when you were around other people ... but now he was alone except for the things.

But this was real, right? Mike had said it was real … or had he? Josh couldn't remember. Mike had said something important … or had that been Sam? Sam had said, Sam had said … he needed to remember, there had been so many voices and some of them weren’t real and why couldn’t he remember which was which any more? Chris would help but Chris wasn’t here, Chris was mad at him, he’d fucked it up ...

The thing that had been Hannah – was Hannah? – dropped him and then crouched down, abnormally long legs spaying out to either side. She reached out one horrifying, claw-like hand and tapped his cheek gently. 

She didn't look like Hannah any more, not at all, apart from the tattoo. Her gentle, dark eyes had turned hard and white, her mouth was filled with sharp, pointed teeth, her skin was grey, she was bald and she had none of Hannah's softness. All skin and bones and twisted limbs.

She tapped his cheek again, more insistently this time. She wanted something. Josh swallowed.

“Hannah …?”

Hannah and Beth had always been there. His first memory was of looking down at them in their cot, their little faces close together. Everyone had said he was too little to have remembered right after they were born but he did. He knew that he did. And then they’d always been there, every memory, Hannah and Beth tagging along somewhere behind.

“They're your little sisters,” his Dad had said once. “It's your job to take care of them.”

Only he'd done a shit job of it, hadn't he? He'd never managed to protect them the way they deserved because his fucking head was so fucking fucked up. He’d had to go away and then when it had counted, when it had _really_ counted ... he’d been drunk. And by the time he’d woken up, it had all been over and everyone had been saying that they hadn’t meant it, it had been a prank but they’d failed and he’d failed and then the voices had come back, everything had come back ...

The monster – Hannah – touched his cheek again. It was more gentle this time. Almost kind. Could a monster be kind? He’d asked Doctor Hill that once when they were talking about things. Doctor Hill had said no ... or had that been one of those things that he’d told Josh to work out for himself? Or had that actually been Doctor Hill? He’d thought Doctor Hill was here, hadn’t he, but he couldn’t have been, Doctor Hill was back home so it couldn’t have been him.

It was hard to remember anything.

He reached up and pressed his hand against Hannah’s cheek. Her skin was icy cold. 

Hannah shot away from him very abruptly, long limbs making her move almost like a spider. The jagged movement made him feel sick. He pressed back against the wall, hugging his knees close to his chest, wishing he was in his normal clothes. He’d thought his disguise was so clever. It had fooled the others, hadn’t it? Yes, it had fooled them. Couldn’t fool Hannah though. Couldn’t fool her.

She returned to the room, looking around as though she couldn’t remember quite where he was. She was clutching something in her long-fingered hand. Something round and thick and dripping ...

“Oh God, oh God, no, no _more!_ ”

She sprang at him as he shouted, seeming to realise where he was, crouching over him again. Josh covered his face with his hands, shaking his head wildly. Maybe it would go away if he did that. Maybe it would all stop, maybe he’d be home, maybe he’d be back a year ago, drinking with Chris, shrieking with laughter over something stupid, Hannah and Beth in the same room, everything fine, fine, fine ...

Something heavy landed on him and a hand grabbed his head, holding him still. He opened his eyes, staring up into the face of the monster that was his sister now. That was okay though. It was better than looking down at the severed head that now lay in his lap.

Hannah snarled at him gently. He didn’t think she was angry, it was more that she was trying to communicate with him but didn’t have words any more. She shook his head gently from side to side and he suddenly remembered a time that Hannah had done something like that, her and Beth together, trying to make him agree to something and she’d grabbed him and made his head nod and he’d rolled his eyes and gone along with it and ...

He was crying. Crying and he didn’t want to be. Did this ... Hannah-thing know what that meant? He wasn’t sure. How could you be sure of anything? His sister was a monster and it was his fault.

She prodded the head on his lap and Josh had to swallow to stop himself being sick. Why had she given him that? What did she _want?_

Sam’s words came back to him: _She dug Beth up ..._

Oh God, no.

“Hannah, let’s go home. Please? Let’s just go to the lodge, let’s go back and we’ll think of something, the others can help us, Chris will help us, we can – ”

She screamed, one of the strange, ghastly shrieks that, now he thought about it, he’d distantly heard all night. Now, it was closer, too close, echoing around him over and over ... how often had Hannah screamed when she was down here, all alone? Screamed for him to help her, only he’d failed, he’d totally failed, he’d let her down, he’d let Beth down, he’d let everyone down, no he had to stop, he had to focus but everything was echoing, clamouring in his head ...

Hannah suddenly jumped away from him, looking back for a moment, then darting away with another scream and that scream sounded angry.

“Hannah! Hannah, come back! Hannah don’t leave me! Hannah, don’t hurt them, please, please, _Hannah!_ ”

But she was gone and he was crouched in the filthy dark with a severed head on his lap, the smell of blood in his nose and his stomach cramping up with a sensation that he didn’t understand. 

He was alone again.

But maybe he wouldn’t be alone for long.

Maybe soon, Hannah would come back.


End file.
